Glissando return with a second record for Gizeh Records. This material bares Glissando's trademark of ethereal voices and tip-toeing piano melodies, but the overall sound is richer and more expansive. Epic swells of strings and guitars soar above the drones and field recordings to create an intense yet fragile noise. The dynamics of the new record are also apparent and through the use of an array of guests there is a new depth and ambition to Glissando that portrays the songs in their truest form. The World Without Us moves slowly between dark shadows and into more hopeful territory throughout -- it's not afraid to be silent when the moment arrives but it's also capable of enormous, echoing, choral and string crescendos in one subtle movement. Since Glissando's debut in 2008, Elly May Irving and Richard Knox have experimented with countless different live set-ups and members ranging from simple, more immediate shows as a duo through to a seven-piece group. Never tied to a specific ideal of how to play the material, it enabled the group to tour heavily for a couple of years in the UK and Europe while recording a follow-up album, but inevitably this process took it toll. In May 2012 Irving and Knox finally completed the record they had been tentatively working on for four years and the final stages came together relatively quickly. Knox produced and pre-mixed the record in his own Cloud Blunt Moon studio in Leeds before heading to Paris to complete the final mixing session with Frederic D. Oberland at his Magnum Diva studio. The material on The World Without Us stretches back the full four years with the likes of "The Long Lost" and "Of Silence," which were previously featured on a highly limited edition, double-A-side single. The title-track is also an older song which has been morphed and reworked over the years. The duo knew these songs were too strong to leave off the record and pushed to find ways of hitting the same standard with the newer tracks like "Companion" which is almost Scott Walker-esque in the vocal delivery, marking a dynamic change in the way Irving is using her voice. Mastered by Nils Frahm. Guest musicians: Angela Chan (The Rustle Of The Stars/A-Sun Amissa), Frederic D. Oberland (FareWell Poetry/The Rustle of the Stars), Aaron Martin, Paul Elam (Fieldhead), Lidwine, Tim Hay and Alastair Hay (Tomorrow We Sail). CD comes in a four-panel heavyweight card sleeve with alternative artwork.